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Food Happenings of Last Wednesday…

I’m still waaay behind on posting my fooding since I’m still stuck with last week and this week is ended…eh. I’m sorry. It’s just my day job is killing me with stress and I’m tired therefore the lack of writing. Moving on…

Last Wednesday, I went to the Financial District for Dine Around Downtown.

What this event basically is (or was) that a bunch of local restaurants within the Financial District would set up booths to these hungry finance people who work near Wall Street, as well as tourists or local residents. Honestly, I didn’t have high expectations from reading the list of what restaurants were there. I just hoped that Bouley’s food would be good or at least worthwhile to go for. So, here’s my first stop at Bouley Market & Bakery.

Bouley Bakery’s stand

I thought my heart stopped when I saw them…macarons! I just went straight for them since you know how obsessed I am with macarons.

I ended up choosing four macarons just for the sake of not killing myself with sugar…and it’s the first thing I’m eating for lunch.

My maccies

Innards of all of ’em; left to right: fresh mint, peach saffron, rose, and peanut butter

These four babies cost me $6…which isn’t so bad. The fresh mint macaron was terribly dry when I bit into it and the flavor just diminished within mere moments. Ugh…it’s like a stale macaron. I’m disappointed. The peach saffron macaron fared a lot better. It’s moist, good bold, apricot flavor with slight hints of bitterness and aroma of saffron; it was pretty darn good. The rose macaron was moist as well. I’ve heard bad things about Bouley’s ishpan (basically a rose flavored pastry with tiny cubes of lychee; sounds weird but so good when it’s done correctly) but this particular macaron came out pretty well; the rose flavor wasn’t too overbearing but you can taste the rose. The peanut butter macaron had the same texture as the fresh mint macaron: it’s dry but the peanut butter flavor was good and it lingered longer on the palate than the mint. So, it’s a mixed result of the macarons.

As I walked all around Chase Manhattan Plaza for some savory food, I was terribly disappointed in what was offered. Either the food is too expensive for what one gets (e.g. Bouley, the restaurant, gives you an endive leaf topped with a tablespoon of tuna tartare for $6) or it’s just unappealing to me (e.g. sandwiches or burgers). I was tempted to get some of Moksha‘s food but the line is building up.

Being the impatient person that I am, I just went for Financier‘s booth for another round of dessert. It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten their stuff…the last time I went there was the time I’ve written about their scones, croissants, and macarons (about last October or so).

Cheesecake Domes

Fruit tartlets

Riz Au Lait Apricot Mousses

The pastry that really tempted me was the chocolate mousse cake. Oh, the seduction of chocolate…

So, I ended up buying a slice of that cake…and here’s the photo session obsession. (Note: these photos were taken with a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens)

Yeah, it’s pretty and I’m amused with it. Anyways, the cake was very chocolatey but not something you would die with an overdose of chocolate. It’s very light and creamy in texture, the chocolate was of good quality ranging from a milk chocolate to dark chocolate (~50% to 62%). It’s good for what it is and where this place is located. Honestly, this is the better bakeries/patisseries in the Financial/Wall Street district.

I left there around 1:30, where almost everyone from the nearby offices and Chase employees themselves left for lunch. It’s too crowded to walk or eat around that I can’t stand it anymore.

Eventually towards the late afternoon, I went to the Upper West Side to Grom. Yess…I love Grom. In hopes they no longer leveling their cups like they had on my previous visit, since I’ve complained to them via email (and got a reply) a while ago.

After standing on line for a while, it seemed like the serving was inconsistent; some were leveled like I had last time and some were decent.

Looks decent to me…

Oh jeez, it’s practically leveled!

So it really depends upon who is scooping your lovely gelato. Just hope that you won’t end up with a server who is a leveler. Mine came out to be the decent scooper.

I had a small cup of cappuccino and pistachio gelato. It tasted awesome as usual but I’m still a bit disappointed that it wasn’t as generous of plop as it was on my very first visit. While I was taking photos of this cup of gelato, the manager, Luigi Ferraris, approached me and inquired about my photos. Eventually, he left me alone for a bit and came back with a torrone and mentioned that they’re creating a new gelato flavor incorporating this particular confection.

The torrone is very good. It’s basically an Italian nougat made with almonds. It would be interesting to eat a torrone gelato.